As this summer's forest fire season begins with a vengeance
in California, forestry experts are still recovering from last
year, which was considered one of the worst in almost a century.
Blazes raged from California to Utah, Idaho and beyond.

One of the areas worst hit by the fires was the Bitterroot
Valley in Montana, where an estimated 300,000 acres were burned in
the valley alone and almost a third of the Bitterroot National
Forest was destroyed.

While the Bitterroot Valley may be known for fiery scenes of
mass destruction, for the past 15 years it has been the home of
Bitterroot Restoration Inc. (BRI), a small landscape restoration
company that has flourished, due in part to its ability to win
government contracts from the National Park Service, the Department
of Defense, and other state and federal agencies. "You would
be amazed how many people don't bother to figure out what we
want done," said a botanist who works for the National Park
Service in Denver. She agreed to discuss small-business contracting
if she was not identified.

"[Business owners will] look at bid packages and ignore
them. Or they'll send you some brochures or write you a long
letter about how they want to work for you," she laments.
"They need to tell me what they have [to offer] and how they
can deal with my problem, with good evidence, and good
references."

Founded in 1986 by Pat Burke and his ex-wife, Jan Krueger, BRI
specializes in restoring native plants and ecosystems on disturbed
and polluted land-from mine sites to flood plains, highways
and forests destroyed by fire. "When we first got started, the
whole notion of ecological restoration barely existed-no one
talked about it but a couple of academics," said Burke, who
has master's degrees in forest ecology and philosophy. "I
happened to be one of those academics. I went to a conference at
Berkeley in 1986 and realized this had a lot of
potential."

In its first year in business, BRI brought in $17,000 in
revenue. Burke's ex-wife held a job to support the family.
Today, the company employs more than 100 and has offices in
California, Montana and Oregon. Revenue for BRI almost doubled
between 1999 and 2000-from $2.4 million to $4.2 million.
Burke said he expects revenue to double hit $9 million this year.
Government contracts account for 55 percent of total revenues.

Burke estimates the landscape restoration industry as a whole
generated about $349 million a year-and predicts it will
triple to $1.2 billion by 2003. There are more landscape
restoration companies in the West than the East due to the
concentration of mining, the legislation requiring restoration and
the sensitive ecosystems of the area.

BRI sets itself apart by taking a holistic approach-not
just to restoring landscapes, but to the way it does business. The
company is involved in every stage of the restoration process, from
planning and design to pollution clean-up, soil restoration, seed
collection, plant propagation, planting and site management.
Clients range from mines and park operators to highways, military
bases and private lands such as ranches.

"A lot of mining companies would hire agricultural
experts," said Burke. "They'd come in, look at the
soil and say, 'OK, we need so many pounds of nitrogen, so many
pounds of phosphorous and so many pounds of potassium. We take an
ecological approach. We looked at nearby vegetation, a fully
forested area or mature grassland, and say 'What does it take
to get there?' What we do is basically jumpstart the natural
process."

But if BRI is mimicking Mother Nature, why not just let damaged
landscapes recover on their own? "Eventually, most sites would
re-vegetate themselves," said Len Ballek, BRI's vice
president of marketing. "But it could take 100 years or more.
Also, in a lot of cases, native plants might be totally missing
from the surrounding area."

Considered a leader in his industry, Burke went to Washington,
DC, last week to talk with legislators and others about the pros
and cons of restoration initiatives. Not every forest fire requires
human intervention to restore the landscape. "A lot of
ecosystems in the West are fire-dependent," explained Burke,
"and a lot of times the best thing to do is nothing."

That said, the severity of last year's fires "are the
result of 100 years of fire suppression combined with historic
drought. The damage was so dramatic in some places, Burke said,
"the soil was sterilized because it was so hot."

You don't have to do landscape restoration to land a
government contract. Every year, the federal government spends
about $200 billion in "procurement services," according
to John DiGiacomo, director of the Procurement Technical Assistance
Center in Rockford, Illinois, and co-author of Win Government Contracts for Your Small
Business. "Last year, the government wrote 18Â½
million contracts," says DiGiacomo. "That ran the gamut
from buying peanut butter to major systems."

Savvy small-business owners should try to take advantage of the
government's goal to purchase 23 percent of its goods and
services from small businesses, with special consideration to
women-, disadvantaged- and disabled-owned small businesses.

Alluring as $200 billion may be, dealing with a complex
application process and government bureaucracy scares off many
small-business owners.

Fortunately, there is help. One of the best places to go for
help is a local Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).
There are 94 PTACs in operation today. Almost all the services that
PTACs provide are free to small businesses, but expect to be asked
for detailed information about your business, and you'll need
information about successful contracts you complete.

"We tell everybody there are three secrets to winning
government contracts," said James Kleckner, a consultant for
the Rockford, Illinois-based PTAC and another co-author of Win
Government Contracts for Your Small Business. "First,
read; second, read; and.can you guess what the third secret
is?"

"Business owners really do need to read the document, make
notes on what they don't understand, and use resources of the
buying office or PTAC."

Resource GuideFor more information on government contracts, see the
following:

Business Daily: a daily online listing of all
government contracts over $25,000

Jane Applegate is a syndicated columnist and the author
of 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business. For
a free copy of her "Business Owner's Check Up," send
your name and address to Check Up, P.O. Box 768, Pelham NY 10803 or
e-mail it to info@sbtv.com.
Sarah Prior contributed to this report.